PAKISTAN
“Pakistani investigators on Tuesday raided the offices of Axact, a software firm in Karachi that has come under scrutiny for running a global diploma mill that made tens of millions of dollars through a network of fake online schools.”

CANADA/CAMBODIA
Seeing that anemia was a huge health problem in Cambodia, a Canadian scientist came up with a great idea to increase the iron content of food: put a metal fish in the cooking pot. If the iron fish is used every day in the correct way, it should provide 75% of an adult’s daily recommended intake of iron.

Daniela

Born and raised in Mexico City, Daniela has finally decided to abdicate her post as an armchair skeptic and start doing some skeptical activism. She is currently living in Spain after having lived in the US, Brazil and Italy. You can also find her blogging in Spanish at esceptica.org.

1 Comment

My attitudes about euthanasia of the vegetative have completely changed since my own six-week coma. The doctors told my loved ones to give up hope for my full recovery. But while they were shining lights in my eyes to gauge my level of consciousness, I was telling them to leave me alone so I could get back to sleep…in my coma dream, as I call it. I was experiencing covert cognition, which means that while the doctors were writing me off as a basket case, I was aware of much of what was going on around me.

The doctors pooh-poohed my loved ones observations of my improving awareness. And my mother thinks that when the nurses lamented my supposedly poor quality of life, they were trying to edge her into eventually pulling the plug.

As you may have guessed, I emerged from the coma with absolutely not cognitive damage, and there were few physical effects, which have mostly disappeared and are expected to go away completely eventually.

Of course, that poor Indian woman wasn’t as lucky as I was. But was she tested for covert cognition? Probably not; you’d have to be fortunate enough to be part of a medical study, like Kate Bainbridge, who has express similar concerns. For all we know, Aruna was experiencing her own entertaining coma-dream. My quality of life in my fantasy world–interrupted by real world events–was just fine.

Sorry about the rant, but as you can see, I’m passionate about this now. Dr. Adrian Owen and his lab at Canada’s Western University has had some success in detecting covert awareness using EEGs, which I did receive. Using the much more expensive and rare fMRI machines, he’s been able to ask some patients yes or no questions. He was the one who detected Kate Bainbridge’s covert cognition. She received therapy after that. I did not, but recovered anyway.

End of rant.

Perhaps someday, doctors will be able to ask patients like Aruna if they want to die, or if they’re perfectly happy in their dream world.

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The Skepchick Network is a collection of smart and often sarcastic blogs focused on science and critical thinking. The original site is Skepchick.org, founded by Rebecca Watson in 2005 to discuss women’s issues from a skeptical standpoint.